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jbliv's review against another edition
4.0
Helprin is a stunning composer. Many will find his writing overblown, especially in our current short-hand culture, but I find it mesmerizing and insightful. If you've read Helprin, this is a fairly standard Helprin novel, with characters as archetypes of the strong, focused, reflective, and intelligent beings the author clearly believes in. They strive, they fail, but they never give up, dedicated to the cause at all costs. It's a concept of timely merit. This is a novel of love, of the special bond between souls, of the wild beauty of New York, and of indomitable spirit. A worthy read, if not quite on par with his earlier works.
histoticbookrunner's review against another edition
3.0
Long winded… gone with the long winded this book should have been called
rgag86's review against another edition
1.0
I really wanted to like this, but it was so superfluous! It could've been 300 pages shorter. I gave up 400 pgs in because I reached a 100 pg flashback and couldn't handle it anymore.
ginabyeg's review against another edition
1.0
I tried, but I just couldn't finish this. The book is actually well-written throughout; Mark Helprin has a beautiful use of language. That being said, for whatever reason, I couldn't follow the story fully. It was quite a dense read, and I always felt like I was missing something. I am a fairly proficient reader, but this book made me feel somewhat unintelligent given the effort needed to slog through it.
mylxa's review against another edition
4.0
Read it for the gorgeous sentences. Possibly, those will sustain you through the plot that stalls in the last third of the book. At least, that's how it worked for me.This book is filled with beautiful, romantic and lyrical writing. It works very well as a love story of Harry and Catherine. It's also maddeningly slow in pacing. It may have been necessary to inject Harry's war experiences as prelude to his final face-off with the mafia. But did it have to go on as long as it did? The novel lost all momentum then and it was something of a chore to hang on until the end.
kagray's review against another edition
2.0
I'm very torn as to what to say about this book. I would give it 2.5 if I could. Part of me loved it and the other part of me wanted to scream at the author, "Just get to the point!" I love a book that paints a scene for you and you can feel you a part of the action. However, I felt as if this book painted every scene in too much detail or maybe just contained too many irrelevant scenes. If you've read the book, this review will make you literally laugh out loud. https://www.goodreads.com/review/447080838/
It took me nearly four months to get through it and now that I've come to the end my heart is broken. I feel like I knew the characters and I ache for them. And that is why I feel torn. The book made me emotional and truly terrible literature doesn't do that.
It took me nearly four months to get through it and now that I've come to the end my heart is broken. I feel like I knew the characters and I ache for them. And that is why I feel torn. The book made me emotional and truly terrible literature doesn't do that.
sinikl's review against another edition
3.0
My least favorite Helprin novel. Many, many, words (most of them beautiful), too little happening around the bones of an interesting premise. Still better than most of the drivel out there.
_jmrz_'s review against another edition
3.0
http://bibliophileblather.blogspot.com/2013/07/in-sunlight-and-in-shadow-mark-helprin.html
More than anything this novel is an authentically-uncommon love story meets (as a The New York Times review described it) a tale of "moral courage of normal guy sand peace time."
I have been a long-time fan of Mark Helprin, who remains a rather unknown novelist. This I see as both fortunate (for me personally: it has allowed me the thrill of being able to introduce sweeping-epic novels to my fellow bibliophile friends) and unfortunate (for Helprin: he is a master of fiction, in my humble opinion, and still so little heard of). All that is to say, if you have never picked up a Helprin publication...it is about time you did.
While A Soldier of a Great War and Winter's Tale still war in my mind for "favorite" Helprin novel, In Sunlight and In Shadow did not fail to deliver on the traditional Heprin style: poetic prose fused with just the right dash of wit and satire to make you laugh out loud from time to time. His phrasing inspires the (forgive the hyperbole) soul to sigh from sheer aesthetic approval from the imagery created by his masterful use of words.
Additionally, if you are an urbanite (which I am not), very much swept away by the beauty of big cities and tall buildings that scape the sky, Helprin is your kin. The way he writes about New York City makes even those of us (ahem) more attracted to small town life, if not an isolated cottage in the woods, intrigued by what it would be like to live in the big city. Without plot spoiling, this novel will also appeal to those who have a curious obsession with the mob (do you always tempted to watch Soprano reruns? Can you never resist the chance for a The Godfather marathon?), those who find themselves wishing they were born in the time of the Great World Wars, and anyone who has a love or appreciation for the escapism and transformative power of stage theatre.
To get metaphoric once more (sorry to get overly whimsical), In Sunlight and In Shadow is a song. This is true not only because music is a important theme that weaves the novel together, but also because the pages of this book are flooded with descriptions of both the joyful ('sunlight,' if you will) and painful ('shadow,' if you'll indulge me). The 'sunlight' and 'shadow' captured in the diction become a minor-key harmony that realistically (although the book is fiction) reflects the oxymoronic oscillations between 'octaves' that life takes. In the end, it is this fickle cadence that makes living truly beautiful and personally precious. Without both 'sunlight' and 'shadow' (the joyful and painful chords sung in life) the lives of the Harry and Catherine (the story's main characters) would have been less rich and less captivating for readers, and the same is true of our own lives (as begruding as we may be to admit it). You just may find that having your life caught between sunlight and shadow is just where you want to be, until you walk through your own concluding coda.
http://bibliophileblather.blogspot.com/2013/07/in-sunlight-and-in-shadow-mark-helprin.html
More than anything this novel is an authentically-uncommon love story meets (as a The New York Times review described it) a tale of "moral courage of normal guy sand peace time."
I have been a long-time fan of Mark Helprin, who remains a rather unknown novelist. This I see as both fortunate (for me personally: it has allowed me the thrill of being able to introduce sweeping-epic novels to my fellow bibliophile friends) and unfortunate (for Helprin: he is a master of fiction, in my humble opinion, and still so little heard of). All that is to say, if you have never picked up a Helprin publication...it is about time you did.
While A Soldier of a Great War and Winter's Tale still war in my mind for "favorite" Helprin novel, In Sunlight and In Shadow did not fail to deliver on the traditional Heprin style: poetic prose fused with just the right dash of wit and satire to make you laugh out loud from time to time. His phrasing inspires the (forgive the hyperbole) soul to sigh from sheer aesthetic approval from the imagery created by his masterful use of words.
Additionally, if you are an urbanite (which I am not), very much swept away by the beauty of big cities and tall buildings that scape the sky, Helprin is your kin. The way he writes about New York City makes even those of us (ahem) more attracted to small town life, if not an isolated cottage in the woods, intrigued by what it would be like to live in the big city. Without plot spoiling, this novel will also appeal to those who have a curious obsession with the mob (do you always tempted to watch Soprano reruns? Can you never resist the chance for a The Godfather marathon?), those who find themselves wishing they were born in the time of the Great World Wars, and anyone who has a love or appreciation for the escapism and transformative power of stage theatre.
To get metaphoric once more (sorry to get overly whimsical), In Sunlight and In Shadow is a song. This is true not only because music is a important theme that weaves the novel together, but also because the pages of this book are flooded with descriptions of both the joyful ('sunlight,' if you will) and painful ('shadow,' if you'll indulge me). The 'sunlight' and 'shadow' captured in the diction become a minor-key harmony that realistically (although the book is fiction) reflects the oxymoronic oscillations between 'octaves' that life takes. In the end, it is this fickle cadence that makes living truly beautiful and personally precious. Without both 'sunlight' and 'shadow' (the joyful and painful chords sung in life) the lives of the Harry and Catherine (the story's main characters) would have been less rich and less captivating for readers, and the same is true of our own lives (as begruding as we may be to admit it). You just may find that having your life caught between sunlight and shadow is just where you want to be, until you walk through your own concluding coda.
http://bibliophileblather.blogspot.com/2013/07/in-sunlight-and-in-shadow-mark-helprin.html
aleffert's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this book. I'm a big fan of Helprin's book Winter's Tale and I moved to New York not too long ago so I was looking forward to seeing something fresh by him about it. (Winter's Tale is practically an ode to New York). He was a way of leading a run of the mill description into a passage of utter poetry. But in this, too many of those passages then turned into lectures and the whole thing was just so tedious. All the women are beautiful and perfect and completely one note (the female lead is an heiress (and young and beautiful and a supremely talented singer, but wise beyond her years). The villains are also totally uninteresting and don't have as much impact as one would expect. The protagonist is brave and plucky and had managed to overcome his upper middle class upbringing and make it into Harvard.
The plot, once it finally gets going was supremely stupid. It tries to build toward a strong, affecting ending, but the whole situation is idiotic. It aims for a home run, but swings and misses completely.
The plot, once it finally gets going was supremely stupid. It tries to build toward a strong, affecting ending, but the whole situation is idiotic. It aims for a home run, but swings and misses completely.
ajreader's review against another edition
3.0
Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.
It's certainly a commitment to read this book. If you have the time and inclination, I think it's worth the effort. It's slow at times, but, overall, I thought the story was lovely. If you can get past some of Helprin's loquacious writing and you're ok without a "happily ever after" ending, then I think you could well enjoy this one.
It's certainly a commitment to read this book. If you have the time and inclination, I think it's worth the effort. It's slow at times, but, overall, I thought the story was lovely. If you can get past some of Helprin's loquacious writing and you're ok without a "happily ever after" ending, then I think you could well enjoy this one.